You'll Always Be Beautiful
by kbg027
Summary: Set during "Fight for Your Right." Patrick saves Kat from her drunkenness.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything, blah blah blah. This is my first 10 Things I Hate About You story, so be gentle.

**You'll Always Be Beautiful...**

Patrick Verona was mad. He was frustrated. He was tired. Both physically and mentally.

And now his god-damn phone was ringing, rousing him from an already restless slumber.

Seeing the name on the screen, he braced for the worst, "What do you want, Kat," he asked. "I don't have anymore energy to exhaust fighting with you tonight."

"I want you to come over," Kat uttered, with slurred speech, obviously holding the phone too close to her mouth.

"Kat, it's late, I'm tired. What do you want?"

"I need to tell you something."

"Can't you tell me over the phone, or could it possibly wait until Monday?"

"No. No. No," Kat argued, sounding somewhat like a child. "Come over so I can tell you something."

"Why, Kat?"

He was growing frustrated now, and he could hear that Kat's sister was also, as he heard her whining in the background.

"Because I need to do it in person," she insisted.

"Why?"

"Because I just do. Just do it."

Just as before, he heard her sister whining again and had to pull the phone away from his ear, as she finally dignified said whining with a response.

He contemplated her demands for a minute before finally deciding that seeing a drunk Kat Stratford was worth all the aggravation she was likely to cause him.

"Okay, give me 15 minutes. I'll be there."

And with that, Patrick Verona dragged himself off the couch, through the door, and on his way to see the girl he had told off, not hours before.

* * *

The party was still raging as he pulled up in front of her house. As he got closer to the front door, he could hear a familiar song over the wild noise of screaming, drunk teens. What seemed intriguing to Patrick was who the voice, singing the song, belonged to. It was undoubtedly Kat.

This was quickly becoming an interesting night, Patrick thought as he opened the door. As surprising as Kat singing, in front of a huge gathering of mouth-breathers, was, even more surprising was the way she looked when he finally stepped into the house. She was dressed in a once-crisp white shirt, that was just long enough on her to cover any body parts that eed not be seen by the general public, some girly boxer shorts, and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. Her hair was mussed, as if she had just stepped out of bed, and she was holding a karaoke microphone as she began belting out another song from the 70s.

As she began shaking her slender hips to the music, Patrick was torn. He stood in awe of her sexy display, but he also wanted to beat the shit out of most of the guys standing around ogling her. Eventually deciding that although he had some mad fighting skills, he couldn't take every guy down, Patrick decided to go with the next best option.

Forcing his way though the crowd was not an easy task. Finally after elbowing a few guys in the gut, and threatening a few others, Patrick made it to the side of the table on which Kat was dancing. In one fluid motion, he grabbed her legs and swung her over his shoulder. She was taken by surprise, but as it wore off, she began protesting.

"Let go of me!"

"Nope."

"Put me down!"

"I don't think so."

While trying in vain to convince Patrick to let go of her, Kat began flailing. Long arms and legs were flying everywhere, but Patrick refused to be distracted from his mission. Instead, he just laughed.

"Try all you want. I'm not putting you down."

Just as they got to her bedroom, she began to calm down. Finally, Patrick could hear himself think.

Arriving at her bedroom, Patrick lifted his boot-clad foot to kick the door in.

Even in her drunken state, Kat's feisty personality showed through. "Don't you dare," she warned.

Spotting an opportunity to have a little fun, Patrick continued to draw back his foot. "And what will you do to me if I do?"

"I'm not gonna tell you. why should I tell you. You'll just tell Patrick, and then he'll be onto me."

'And.... drunk Kat's back,' Patrick thought with a smile.

After pulling his foot back a few times just to get a rise out of her, Patrick finally settled on turning his body so that Kat was facing away from the door, and pushing said door with his hip.

"Oooohhh. Aaaahhh. Somebody's got talent. I'll alert the Hoff."

Patrick chuckled at her as he quickly made his was through the door and strode to the bed, before plopping her down upon it.

"Omph. Wow this bed's soft. I wonder who's it is?"

"I don't know," Patrick said, deciding to play along.

"Well we should find out. I wouldn't want some strangers making out on my bed."

"Oh no. You're staying right here."

"But...."

"No buts."

Sticking her bottom lip out at him, Kat whined, "But, I wanna make out with you so bad."

"How bout I make you a deal? Hmm? How about I go find out for you?"

"Okay, I guess that sounds alright. But hurry back cowboy, I can't wait to get a taste of those lips."

* * *

Hearing this, Patrick rushed out of the room and quickly shut the door. Standing on the other side, he began to think. Would it be wrong to take advantage of Kat's drunkenness? After that interesting encounter a few weeks ago, Patrick could resist another chance to feel those lips. Kat really was different than other girls, but not because she was easy. She actually made him feel something. not to say that no other girl had ever made him feel anything, but it was a different kind of anything. Those girls made him feel something in his pants. Kat made him feel something all over. She made his heart pound when she stared him down. His pulse quicken when she brushed past him. He felt connected to her and respected her.

So he didn't feel too guilty about his decision.

He didn't have much time to feel guilty though, because just as he reached for the doorknob, Kat wildly threw the door open and caught sight of him. Almost instantly, they were joined together in a tangled mess of bodies and limbs. Patrick was thrown up against the wall as Kat wrapped her long legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck. After finally regaining his balance, Patrick began to move forward, back into the bedroom. When he reached the bed, he again lowered Kat onto the bed, but this time, he went down with her, being careful not to lay his full weight on her.

Lips crashed, tongues tangled, and hands explored for a few more hot and heavy minutes, before Kat abruptly pulled away. Patrick thought he was in for a strong dose of Kat craziness, but instead, he was quickly pulled off the bed and out the door.

The last thing she uttered, as they ran into the bathroom, was "Hold my hair."

* * *

Patrick did as he was told, and also tried to comfort Kat at the same time. As she crouched on the floor, heaving, with her head resting on the toilet seat, Patrick ran his free hand up and down her back. When the heaving stopped, and she finally got the courage to lift her head, mortified expression washed over Kat's features. Had she really let him see her puke?

At this realization, Kat began to sob. Seeing this, Patrick lifted her from her spot in front of the toilet and pulled her into his lap. As she continued to sob, he began to hum. He rocked rocked back and forth until he heard her breathing even out, and couldn't feel anymore sobs.

"Come on, let's get you to bed."

Standing up and carrying Kat to her room, he felt a special closeness to her.

When they got back to Kat's room, Patrick went over to the bed, gently laid her down, and covered her with a blanket. He reluctantly tried to pull away to bid her goodnight and let her sleep, but he was caught by with her hand around his wrist.

"Stay with me."

"Kat..."

"I won't try anything funny. Just stay."

"Alright," Patrick sighed as he softly lowered himself to a sitting postion on the edge of her bed. He turned to look at her, and saw her staring back at him. He raised his hand to puch some hair out of her face, and let it linger on her cheek.

"Lay down, Patrick. I won't bite."

"Are you sure?"

"Haha."

As Patrick shifts to lay down, Kat lifts her blanket so he can crawl under them. He instantly wraps his arms around her waist, as she lays her head upon his chest.

After laying in silence for a few minutes, Kat finally speaks, "What was that you were humming?"

"Oh, just some song. Nothing much."

"Well what was it?"

"Just something I hear on the radio from time to time."

"Would you sing it for me?"

"Me sing?"

"Yea, just do it," she begged, sounding just as she had when she forced him to come over earlier.

"Oh, ok."

"You always get dolled up for your party," he slowly began.

"Good thing your birthday only comes once a year..."

"Cause you always forget that you're so small...."

"You can't take all that alcohol..."

"And you wind up over my shoulder, and into the car..."

"Hey, that sounds like me," Kat interupted.

Patrick laughed before continuing, "But you'll always be beautiful..."

"You'll always be beautiful..."

"To me," Patrick finished softly.

As, Patrick whispered the last line into her ear, Kat nuzzled further into his embrace.

For a few minutes, the only sound that could be heard in the room was their breathing. Eventually, Kat broke the silence, saying, "Thank you, Patrick."

"Anytime," he responded, knowing exactly what she was thanking him for.

Before they both drifted off to sleep, Patrick brought his lips to the top of Kat's head, to lay a kiss on her hair.

"You'll always be beautiful, Kat."

Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Hope you read and review.


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